Zina Garrison

Zina Lynna Garrison (born November 16, 1963 in Houston, Texas) is a former professional tennis player from the United States. During her career, she was a women's singles runner-up at Wimbledon in 1990, a three-time Grand Slam mixed doubles champion, and a women's doubles gold medalist at the 1988 Olympic Games.

Career

An African-American and the youngest of seven children, Garrison started playing tennis at the age of 10 and entered her first tournament at the age of 12. Her success as a junior player quickly made the tennis world take notice. At the age of 14 she won the national girls' 18s title. And then in 1981, she won both the Wimbledon and US Open junior titles and was ranked the World No. 1 junior player. Garrison graduated from Sterling High School in Houston in 1982.

Garrison began suffering from the eating disorder bulimia when she was 19, following the death of her mother. "I had never been comfortable with my looks and felt I had lost the only person who loved me unconditionally", Garrison told the British Observer Sport Monthly in 2006. "The pressure of being labeled 'the next Althea Gibson' only made things worse. I felt I was never going to be allowed to grow into just becoming me."

Garrison turned professional in 1982, and skipped her graduation at Ross Sterling High School to compete in the French Open, her first...
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